Fears of racial violence prompt lockdown of L.A. County Men's Central Jail

The Men's Central Jail has been on lockdown since Friday evening after the L.A. County Sheriff's Department learned that inmates were plotting violence.

Sheriff's officials said they placed the downtown jail -- known for holding the most dangerous inmates -- on lockdown after learning that some prisoners were planning racial violence.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the facility was locked down to visitors and inmate movement until this morning and that now those restrictions were being eased.

Violence between black and Latino inmates has been a problem at the jail.

Since it opened just east of downtown Los Angeles 44 years ago, Men's Central Jail has been the scene of many of the jail system's most disturbing incidents, including nine inmate homicides between 2000 and 2007. In 2004, an inmate roamed the jail unsupervised for hours before tracking down and killing an inmate who had testified against him.

Months after that killing, Merrick Bobb, the county's special counsel, wrote a report that described the jail as "nightmarish to manage" and suggested the department close it.

-- Richard Winton

Photo: Inside Men's Central Jail in downtown L.A. Credit: Los Angeles Times

More in: Crime & Courts

Wake Up California: It’s Time to Get Real About Criminal Justice Reform

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

The "Prison Population and Budget Reduction Package" proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is like a drunk person walking home from a bar — it knows where it wants to go but oftentimes you find it stumbling off the sidewalk or turning down the wrong street.Since we believe budget cutting is no small feat and should be taken very seriously, especially in the wake of the prison riots in Chino and public safety needs, we've decided to pour the CDCR a strong cup of coffee and see if we can't point the plan in a better direction.

The People's Budget Fix, as we've named it, responds to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the corrections budget with a series of smart reforms to save the state billions of dollars, improve public safety, and advance long-needed adjustments in California's Corrections system.
Here's an outline of some of the ways the CDCR's budget proposal goes wrong and how we can do better.

Step 1: Reserve Prison for Serious Offenses

• Convert MORE Petty Offenses to Misdemeanors: The CDCR identified only four out of 73 low-level, nonviolent "wobblers" (offenses that can be treated as felonies or misdemeanors) to convert to misdemeanor offenses.That's a good start but is not enough to save the $700 million annually that the Legislative Analyst's Office predicts will come from converting more petty offenses.Nonviolent property crimes such as forgery, embezzlement, and vandalism should not result in expensive prison sentences

• Keep Response to Petty Drug Offenses Local: California prisons are packed with low-level drug offenders, causing a significant drain on the state's criminal justice system. People convicted of simple drug possession should be handled at the county level through community service, treatment, probation or some combination, saving $1 billion annually.

• Respond to Youth Offenders Closer to Home: The Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has an astronomical recidivism rate of 72 percent and an annual budget of $436 million.We need to close these wasteful and ineffective youth prisons. Youth currently housed in DJJ prisons should be diverted to county custody and half the DJJ budget should be used to support effective local treatment programs, still allowing a net savings of more than $200 million annually.

Step 2: Focus Resources on Recidivism-Reduction

• Maintain Effective Programs: The CDCR plans to eliminate $175 million in existing programs that aim to alleviate the state's recidivism problem. Sending people from prison to the streets without any preparation or support is a recipe for failure. Programs such as substance abuse counseling, vocational training, and education are vital to the inmates' ability to prepare for life on the outside — these programs should be protected, not cut.

• Limit GPS Monitoring to High-Risk Offenders: The CDCR has proposed placing low-risk inmates, such as the medically infirm and elderly, in the community, but require that they wear GPS monitoring devices.While we support moving these inmates out of costly prison cells, GPS monitoring is unnecessary for these low-risk inmates and a waste of state money. Research has shown that GPS monitoring is costly and should be reserved for higher-risk offenders.

• Enhance Plans for Risk-Based Parole Supervision: The CDCR is on the right track in saying that parole should be for violent and sex offenders and those considered high-risk. It makes sense to place moderate risk/nonviolent offenders on administrative parole.We need to go further, ending the administrative parole after one clean year. Just eliminating parole for drug possession would reduce the population by 25 percent and save $135 million annually.

Step 3: Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform

The People's Budget Fix is indeed a sobering cup of coffee, opening our eyes to what smart and sensible criminal justice reforms can do to help save our state more money, improve public safety, and begin reforming our ailing prison system. But we can't stop there.

The People's Budget Fix also calls upon the governor and the California legislature to go beyond the immediate fixes identified above and strive for lasting budget reforms. We must delve deeper into the sobering realities of our criminal justices system and its failures. We need a balanced sentencing commission to take the politics out of the public safety debate and put the people back in. And we need to address two costly and ineffective areas of our criminal justice system: the death penalty and California's Three Strikes law. Both of these policies cost that state billions of dollars in prison spending and court costs with no demonstrable returns for public safety. It is time for California to limit Three Strikes to violent offenses and replace the death penalty with effective alternatives that promote public safety.

We hope our proposals help our political leaders see straight and get us all home safely.

The People's Budget Fix is supported by Drug Policy Alliance, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Families Amend California's Three Strikes, and the ACLU California affiliates.

The way state prisons run is almost criminal

It costs California taxpayers nearly $50,000 a year to incarcerate each of the state's 168,000 state prison inmates.
Part of that cost, which is about 50 percent higher than the national average, is due to prison overcrowding because of tougher sentencing laws. And those tougher sentencing laws were championed by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has a huge interest in having more prisons - and prisoners to fill them.
The more prisoners, of course, the more guards and parole officers that are needed. Union leaders have greased the palms of many a political candidate, who, when elected, makes certain the union's interests are taken care of. Then there is sloppy bookkeeping.
A typical California prison guard earns $72,000 a year, plus an average of $16,000 in overtime. One in every 10 officers makes more than $100,000 a year; more than 1,500 guards earn more than prison wardens. And those numbers don't include an additional 30 percent for health, dental, vision and other benefits and a pension that allows guards and parole agents to retire with 90 percent of their pay at age 50. Yes, the work is unpleasant and dangerous.
In all, the Corrections Department consumes 11percent of the state budget. California pays more for prisons than it pays for education. Nearly half-a-billion dollars a year goes just for prison overtime.
Accounting problems, bookkeeping and problems with time cards are under constant attack, as a report from the state auditor noted last week. It turns out that the state may have paid nearly $600,000 in extra pay that wasn't warranted. Pay differentials that were loosely audited range from cook specialist I ($190 a month) to supervising registered nurse ($400). To be fair, classifications weren't detailed in the auditor's report. The criterion for monthly differential pay is supervision: To earn the pay, an employee had to supervise at least two other employees.
But this isn't the only example of incompetent management. The prison guards union owes the state more than $1.3 million for salaries of full-time guards who were on leave to be union representatives. The department's excuse for not collecting it? They couldn't quite figure out who was gone and how much they earned during the past five years. From 2006 to 2008 alone, the prisons department billed the union for more than $750,000. It has yet to receive a penny. The department is scratching its head over the number of actual union representatives who are on full-time leave. It could be three, or it could be nine.
Despite repeated negative reports from the state auditor's office, little has been done to fix the system, and that's criminal.
Reform is job for Schwarzenegger
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledges to clean up the prisons mess before he leaves office. He also has to trim the prison population to relieve overcrowding and continue efforts to fix the prisoner health care mess. He'll face brick-wall and barbed-wire opposition from union leaders and a dysfunctional Corrections Department. This is definitely a job for the Terminator.
One suggestion for reducing overtime would be 12-hour shifts (four shifts one week, three the next). Another is a top-to-bottom audit, with accountability for sloppy bookkeeping. Another is one that would save tens of millions: Release elderly prisoners who are no longer a threat to society, thus avoiding their huge medical costs.
None of this will be easy. Through the years, union leaders have gotten what they want (thanks to compliant politicians) to the point that the union pretty much runs the prisons. But for the sake of California's budget, and the people who pay the bills, let's hope Schwarzenegger is up to the task. He has nothing to lose except joining the ranks of past losers. In the time left in his term, just concentrating on prison reforms would take a huge dent out of the state's out-of-control deficit.

Prison report (outside the walls): The parolee's dilemma

Editors note: Just A Guy has been writing from inside the California state prison system. He was released this week -- great news -- but the story is by no means over. Here's his latest; you can read his some of his previous posts here and here.

By Just A Guy

I’m sitting here about 24 hours after my release from California State Prison, Solano wondering what the hell I am going to do -- because I am staying in a hotel and unable to travel to my home.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m grateful to be out -- but beyond irritated at the measures The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has gone through to make it difficult for people to transition back into society. You see, I don’t live in this state, and though I started attempting to get my parole transferred out of state six months ago while in prison (as required) the request wasn’t done until two months ago, and Sacramento’s regional parole desk hasn’t even received it.

Now I’m hoping that I am given a travel pass to go out of state to see my little girls and be with my family for Thanksgiving, but that is, according to my P.O, a very tenuous proposition because his boss doesn’t like to give out travel passes…and since I just got out I’m not known…and it doesn’t seem to matter much that my house, my car, my business, and my entire support network are over a thousand miles away…you get the picture.
And I’m one of the lucky ones, because I have the resources to be able to live in a hotel for three months if necessary, to work from a hotel as well, to have a car delivered to me. WHAT ABOUT THOSE THAT DON’T HAVE THOSE RESOURCES?

(Not an hour after writing this I was fortunate enough to have my P.O call me and let me know that I have been approved to go to the state where my family resides as long as the supervising agent there is willing to accept me, which he is. I am grateful that my agent was able to go to bat for me and get this done, that I will be able to spend the holidays with my family, friends, and loved ones).

Again and again, the mediocrity of the R of CDCR stands to the fore -- yet the citizens are in denial as to what the real problem is. How can a system such as this possibly sustain rehabilitation? It’s truly unconscionable to proclaim that they are helping. What is also unconscionable is a lot of these P.O.’s really want to help people stay out of prison and protect society -- but their hands are being tied by tough-on-crime rhetoric and lack of funding.

Yeah, we committed the crimes, but the majority of these crimes were committed in the pursuit of drugs or alcohol or the rewards of selling the former. What good can possibly come of sending a person into society after many years with no substantive rehabilitative programs, and having him live in the bushes by the freeway, and not let him go home out of state because of CDCRs bureaucratic follies unrelated to the inmate’s attempts to get the paperwork done? Don’t you see how the system is set up for failure?

There are more than 600 more people in prison per 100,000 people in the USA vs. Netherlands (700 vs. 100) , but it’s the inmates that are the problem, right?

Yes, we (I) made some very poor choices, but I just did three years and two months for possession (a victimless crime). I was not allowed to go into the Substance Abuse Program because I had an out of state warrant for a marker I didn’t pay at a casino in Vegas (felony warrant), although I did pay it eventually. What about people who couldn’t pay? Do they need help any less? How does keeping someone from entering a drug abuse program because of old warrants help him prepare for a return to society? How does anything in this broken self-fulfilling prophecy of recidivism called CDCR help transition your soon-to-be neighbors back into the world?

Again, it’s our responsibility to find our own recovery, our own path to staying out of prison, but don’t believe for one minute that we are given the help many of us need, many of us hope for, and many of us never get…because though it is our responsibility many have never been responsible for anything at all, then they are asked to be, they try and find the brick wall that is CDC(R).

I really appreciate the support of my readers over the time I've been writing from inside, but my thoughts and observations on the prison system won't just end now that I've been released. I'll continue to write about the parole process as it develops and to comment on prison issues -- and you can look forward to a larger story on my experience in the near future.

New Jails, No Treatment, in California Prison Plan

Posted November 18, 2009
Prisons & Public Health news blog

With his first proposal rejected by a federal court, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week submitted a new, 130-page plan to cut California prisons' inmate population by 42,000 in two years.

The proposal (PDF) would build new prisons and transfer inmates out of state, but comes amid a hefty budgetary slash to drug treatment programs that lawmakers had previously identified as an effective way of in keeping people out of prison.

Indeed, rehabilitation -- treatment, counseling or education programs -- does not figure into the new prison plan. It adopts similar strategies outlined in the document that Schwarzenegger filed with the courts in September -- including house arrest for elderly and ill inmates, transferring inmates out of state, and building new prisons.

The plan would waive environmental laws to expedite prison construction, and forgo restrictions on transferring inmates with serious medical and mental health problems to out-of-state prisons.

As mandated by the court, the state also included comments on the effects of $250 million in state cuts to adult rehabilitation programs -- a 40 percent reduction in the overall rehabilitation and treatment budget.

The cuts could have an "adverse impact" on some health services for prisoners, and would also target 5,000 slots in the state's substance-abuse programs for parolees.

The new plan does not mention that cuts to rehab will mean that drug treatment will close outright at eight prisons, and scaled-down versions will continue operating at 12 of its 33 prisons, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Cuts have already forced the shuttering of a substance abuse program at Donovan State Prison that's hailed for cutting recidivism from 71 to 21 percent.

Two years ago, an independent review of California's prison system commissioned by state legislators found that rehab programs could eliminate 48,000 prison beds, saving taxpayers $561 million to $684 million per year.

Schwarzenegger has championed rehabilitation in the past. He was responsible for changing the name of the state's corrections department to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation four years ago and in 2007, he told reporters that when it comes to rehabilitation services for prisoners, "We have to heal them. We have to get them ready to go out so they can get a job, connect with society and never commit a crime again."

Schwarzenegger continues to challenge the legality of the federal court's August 2009 order mandating California's prison population reduction. The case is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prisons on Schedule to Overspend by $1.4 Billion

California Budget Deficit Balloons, While Prisons on Schedule to Overspend by $1.4 Billion

Advocates Condemn Sacramento’s Priorities: “California’s Incarceration Spending Locks Up Our Tax Dollars"

SACRAMENTO – The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office announced today that it expects the California state budget deficit to exceed $20 billion by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, and that the state will spend $1.4 billion more on prisons than was budgeted in 2009-10. Advocates criticize the state for failing to make real cuts to prison spending, while enacting brutal cuts to important social services.

“California’s prison spending is totally out of whack and it’s locking up tax dollars that now aren’t available for education and other community services like fire protection and elder care,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in Southern California. “Other states, like New York, have reduced their crime rates and their prison populations at the same time. California should follow their lead.”

The Legislature and governor approved $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in late July. On September 11, the Legislature sent a bill to the governor that would realize just $200-300 million in cuts. According to the LAO’s report, prison spending will exceed its 2009-10 budgeted level by $1.4 billion.

“Sacramento said that it would cut prison spending by $1.2 billion – but that was a lie. That should come as no surprise; the prisons have overspent their budget by hundreds of millions of dollars in each of the past several years,” Dooley-Sammuli continued. “With the state near fiscal collapse, this just won’t do any longer. Prisons, like other resources, should be used wisely. They simply aren’t the right place for people convicted of petty offenses, particularly low-level, non-violent drug law violations.”

According to the CDCR, over 30,000 people are locked up in California state prisons for a non-violent drug offense – at a total cost of $1.5 billion per year. Instead of reducing costs by addressing the number of people incarcerated for petty drug offenses, however, the state recently announced that it would cut by 70% the amount of drug treatment offered behind bars and by 40% the amount of drug treatment offered on parole.

The LAO report is online at: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=2143

Prison report: The corruption factor

Prison report: The corruption factor
By Just A Guy

Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His reports appear twice a week.

I believe it to be an imperative that opposing views should be a part of any dialogue. This is especially true in the comments section of my blog. While we, as inmates, are given a very limited voice, we (or I) should not preclude people who believe differently from being a part of the discussions. Were I to do that, I would be just like the mainstream media, the majority of politicians, and a seeming majority of law enforcement that only reports one side of the story -- which is almost always assumed by a largely vapid public to be true.

It is alarming, though, that when someone with an opposing view posts his or her comments, they mostly seem to degrade into name calling and derision. Case in point would be bobjacboson, who commented about my blog a few weeks ago and accused me of being psychotic.

When I read comments such as bob’s, I can’t help but wonder if the commenters even read the post before making their thoughts known to the public.

I believe I opened that blog stating that I could not be explicit for fear of retaliation, but bob railed one me for not being explicit. Sigh.

Please read before you comment, bob, then think. But I’m going to give you an example of what I was talking about.

Corrupt: 1. dishonest, accepting bribes; 2. Immoral, or wicked. 3. Decaying.

As you can see from this definition, corruption isn’t necessarily the act of taking a bribe or bringing in contraband; it’s also dishonesty or immorality.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll tell you a story and you can make up your own minds.

Let me start with some background:

In prison we have what is called an appeal. An appeal is what an inmate gets to use as a grievance procedure. The form we are supposed to use is called a “602”. The following is taken directly from the form boilerplate:

“You may appeal any policy, action or decision which has a significant adverse affect on you …. No reprisals will be taken for using the appeals procedure responsibly.”

This appeals process is what is supposed to give us an opportunity to seek justice or relief, similar to the courts. But it’s a farce by all accounts; here’s just one.

I appealed a decision that had an adverse affect on me. This appeal was sent to the second level, which is the penultimate level, but was denied by the reviewing staff member. While the basis for the denial was invalid and weak at best, what was unconscionable was that this staff member in the memorandum for my denial wrote about speaking with me about my appeal and hearing my side of the story. This person even noted that the interview took place on a specific day. The staffer claimed to have investigated my side of the story after talking with me. This is not quite true.

You see, until I actually received my copy of the denied appeal, I had never heard of this appeal reviewer or staff member. The staff member NEVER interviewed me and never met me. PERIOD.

I still don’t know who this person is, nor do they know me.

In this denial, the staff member cited the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation policy that states that they are required to meet me. That never happened.

Now, how do I prove this? It’s a prison staff member’s word against mine -- and who will the director believe? What is my recourse?

Not two weeks prior to this incident, my case worker told me that he wanted to help people. When I brought this comment and this appeal situation to his attention, and asked him what I should do, he didn’t offer any advice – but said he was sorry that this had happened, good luck.

Corruption isn’t just lying, cheating or being bribed. It’s also knowingly allowing that behavior to continue.

There are no whistleblowers in CDCR, because without the prison system, a good portion of the talent pool would not be able to do much beyond the service industry or manual labor.

So, this is a small example. Yea, I’m in prison, yeah 80 percent of people doing time deserve to be doing time (and you know how I feel about victimless crimes) but is that a good enough reason to allow the keepers to go on unchecked?

One last thought: Why would I make this up? In what way could it benefit me? Don’t you think if I were not afraid or retaliation I would tell you the name of staffer? Or tell the whole story? I have no faith in the statement that no reprisal will be taken.

So bobjacobsen, who’s the psychotic one? Maybe it's the staff member who hallucinated the meeting with me.

By Tim Redmond: November 02, 2009 11:39 AM